Prostate Health and Wellness Guide

To maintain prostate health, you really don’t need to buy thousands of health care equipment or drink all kinds of obscure kidney-tonifying folk remedies. There are four core things - don’t hold your urine for a long time, don’t sit for more than 2 hours in a row, avoid excessively spicy irritants, and people of the right age should do regular prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screenings. The rest are mostly IQ taxes.

Last week, I met a 32-year-old Internet company manager. In order to catch up with the 618 activity plan, he sat at his work station for more than 12 hours for three consecutive days. He couldn't hold back the urge to urinate before running to the toilet. As a result, he developed tingling pain during urination and lower abdominal pain on the third day. When he came for a check-up, the white blood cells in the prostate fluid were three times higher than the normal value, indicating an acute prostatitis attack. He also said that he had seen posts about "prolonged sitting hurts the prostate" before, and he always felt that he was young and could handle it, but he didn't know that when the problem really happened, it hurt so much that he couldn't even sit down. If you think about it, the prostate is stuck at the outlet of the bladder, like a valve that controls urination. If you sit and press it every day, holding back urine and inflating it, it would be strange if there is no problem with the valve.

Many people ask me whether drinking more water is good for the prostate or not. There is really no unified answer to this. If you are currently experiencing an attack of chronic prostatitis and have severe symptoms of frequent urination and urgency, drinking 3000ml of water a day is just to make yourself suffer. Controlling it to 1500-1800ml during the day is enough. Try to drink as little water as possible after 8pm to avoid getting up late at night and aggravating the local burden. But if you usually have no symptoms and just want to prevent it, drinking about 2000ml of warm water a day can flush the urethra and reduce the bacterial residue near the prostate. It is much more effective than drinking functional drinks or health tea.

There is another topic that has been quarreling for many years: Is lycopene the "patron saint" of the prostate? There was a patient who asked someone to bring more than 300 bottles of lycopene from abroad, saying that taking it for half a year would prevent prostate cancer. However, a physical examination still revealed mild hyperplasia. Now the academic community has different conclusions on this issue: Europe and the United States have conducted cohort studies for more than ten years, and indeed found that people who consume sufficient amounts of lycopene for a long time have about a 15% lower risk of prostate cancer. However, domestic clinical follow-up data shows that lycopene has basically no obvious effect on improving the daily symptoms of prostatitis and prostatic hyperplasia. So there is really no need to spend a lot of money on imported supplements. I usually eat tomato scrambled eggs and tomato beef brisket two or three times a week. When cooking, add two more spoons of oil. Lycopene is fat-soluble, so the amount absorbed is completely enough. It is much more cost-effective than taking supplements.

Two years ago, I met a 40-year-old man who had mild prostatic hyperplasia during a physical examination. He didn’t want to take medicine. He bought a “prostate treatment massager” worth more than 8,000 yuan after watching a live broadcast. He said that sitting on it and massaging it for half an hour every day would cure the problem. However, he went to the emergency room after half a month of pain and blood in the urine. It was originally just a slight hyperplasia, but repeated stimulation led to local congestion and edema, which oppressed the urethra, and he had to be infused with fluids to reduce inflammation. This is not to say that prostate massage is completely useless. If you have chronic aseptic prostatitis and the doctor finds that the prostate fluid is seriously stagnant during the examination, it is useful for a doctor from a regular hospital to massage it for you. However, if you buy a messy instrument and massage it randomly, the strength and position are wrong, it is easy to cause problems.

As for the most controversial question, "Whether abstinence or regular ejaculation is better for the prostate?", it all depends on the situation. If you have acute bacterial prostatitis, you must abstain from sexual intercourse temporarily, otherwise congestion will aggravate the spread of inflammation and make you so painful that you don't even think about it. But if it is common chronic aseptic prostatitis, there is no need to hold it in. Regular ejaculation 1-2 times a week can bring out the accumulated prostatic fluid, which is more effective than taking Chinese patent medicines for half a month. Don't believe in the old saying "one drop of semen and ten drops of blood". Prostate fluid should be renewed regularly, but holding it back may cause problems.

Many people say that I have to sit for a long time at work. What should I do? There is no need to stand up after one hour with a stopwatch. If you write down the key points in the plan and the game reaches the promotion round, it is okay to sit for 20 more minutes. When you get up, remember to jump on tiptoes two or three times, or do 3 levator exercises. Hold for 5 seconds each time and then release. This can quickly improve the blood circulation near the prostate, which is much more effective than standing up to get a glass of water and shaking it around. Also, don’t always wear tight jeans. Too much temperature in the crotch can also stimulate the prostate. Wearing looser pants in summer is really more comfortable.

In fact, the prostate is just like other organs in your body. It is not so delicate, and you don’t need to follow the instructions one by one on health care posts every day. Occasionally staying up late, eating hot pot, or sitting for a long time will not cause problems immediately. I am afraid that you will cause them for a long time and not take it seriously. If you really have the symptoms of frequent urination, urgent urination, and pain in the lower abdomen, don't frighten yourself by searching blindly on the Internet. You will always think that you have an incurable disease. Go to the urology department of a regular hospital to register for a consultation. A dozen yuan will be 10,000 times more effective than buying health care products blindly. Oh, by the way, men over 50 years old must include a PSA item in their annual physical examination. If there is a direct relative in the family who has had prostate cancer, start checking at the age of 45. Early detection and early intervention will not cause any problems.